A brain dump about living and working on the edge of the social web.

December 15, 2010

Project Moon Colony - Concept

I wrote this brief and unfinished concept document a long time ago. I thought I'd open it up because I still like the idea. The audacity of Web 2.0 at its finest. I'd love to see this happen though, so someone run with it please....

MetaMoon:

Project Moon Colony/MetaMoon

Yahoo! Brickhouse and NASA Ames Research Center propose to create an online virtual world and community based on the actual geography and physics of the earth's moon. This virtual world would be an interative, online 3-dimensional environment, with support for "massively multiplayer" interactions, and would incorporate a set of 3D data analysis tools to explore and extend existing datasets.This would would be built as an open platform, and designed inherently to be extensible and customizable .

Background

Virtual worlds such as Second Life or World of Warcraft have become a "second" home for people as they live their daily lives. Yahoo! has very little insight on the impact and power that online virtual worlds represent. NASA is looking for an interesting opportunity to work with Yahoo! They are also very interested in virtual worlds and the wisdom of the crowds that they can represent.

In order to colonize space, many experts believe that a moon colony needs to be established first. A virtual moon colony could become one of first steps in understanding how people would interact and live in such an environment.

Context (where did this come from?)

Many people have had dreams of space travel and a moon visit. This could provide people with the ability to explore that dream. I enjoy moon science and lore as well as exploration history. I want to create an educational and entertaining environment based on the moon, its history, and its potential to colonize space.

Many virtual worlds exist in a fantasy environment. Second Life is not reality based, nor is WOW or other MMOGs such as SPORE. This would provide the public with a realistic environment based on real science and actual data to interact with and participate in.

+there have been several scientifically accurate planetary data browsers created, and there have obviously been several very successful MMORPGs, but these have yet to be brought together in a meaningful way.

+separately, lack of standards and adoption of 3D immersive environments is a problem.

Comments

Project Moon Colony - Concept

I wrote this brief and unfinished concept document a long time ago. I thought I'd open it up because I still like the idea. The audacity of Web 2.0 at its finest. I'd love to see this happen though, so someone run with it please....

MetaMoon:

Project Moon Colony/MetaMoon

Yahoo! Brickhouse and NASA Ames Research Center propose to create an online virtual world and community based on the actual geography and physics of the earth's moon. This virtual world would be an interative, online 3-dimensional environment, with support for "massively multiplayer" interactions, and would incorporate a set of 3D data analysis tools to explore and extend existing datasets.This would would be built as an open platform, and designed inherently to be extensible and customizable .

Background

Virtual worlds such as Second Life or World of Warcraft have become a "second" home for people as they live their daily lives. Yahoo! has very little insight on the impact and power that online virtual worlds represent. NASA is looking for an interesting opportunity to work with Yahoo! They are also very interested in virtual worlds and the wisdom of the crowds that they can represent.

In order to colonize space, many experts believe that a moon colony needs to be established first. A virtual moon colony could become one of first steps in understanding how people would interact and live in such an environment.

Context (where did this come from?)

Many people have had dreams of space travel and a moon visit. This could provide people with the ability to explore that dream. I enjoy moon science and lore as well as exploration history. I want to create an educational and entertaining environment based on the moon, its history, and its potential to colonize space.

Many virtual worlds exist in a fantasy environment. Second Life is not reality based, nor is WOW or other MMOGs such as SPORE. This would provide the public with a realistic environment based on real science and actual data to interact with and participate in.

+there have been several scientifically accurate planetary data browsers created, and there have obviously been several very successful MMORPGs, but these have yet to be brought together in a meaningful way.

+separately, lack of standards and adoption of 3D immersive environments is a problem.

Obligatory Introduction

I'm David Beach and this is my blog. I'm a Product Manager, Information Architect, and founder of 12seconds.tv. I work for eBay Mobile. I'm also surviving lung cancer. This site is about my life online and some other junk... enjoy ;)